For example, video game machines, slot machines, pachinko (Japanese pinball) machines, etc., are available as gaming machines for controlling image display for playing games. Character and background images are controlled with the video game machines, and symbol pattern display is controlled with the slot machines and pachinko machines.
Hitherto, such gaming machines have utilized image data previously stored as game software for the images displayed in the games. Thus, when repeating games more than once, the player may get tired of the same screen and lose interest in the games.
To solve this problem, an technique for enabling a player to change the appearances of characters displayed on a screen, and the background, as he or she desires, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 4-259480. In the related art, an image of a person is captured with a television camera, and an image signal of the person is converted into image data by AD conversion means. Image data in game software stored in a memory is read, the image data portion corresponding to the area where a person would be displayed is discriminated from the image data and erased, and the image data from the AD conversion means is edited and assigned to the erased image data. At this time, the player specifies the image type (person or background) by pushing a push button on the television camera, whereby an image type signal is output.
In the related art, the positional relationship between the television camera and object and image processing are not discussed in detail. For example, image processing may become complicated for replacing the image data in game software depending on the size of the object captured with the television camera. The image taking-in time and the switching time into image of appearances are not particularly considered.